Point of View

The novel is told from a limited omniscient point of view. In the Brandon and in the Reshmina chapters, events are related through what that child experiences and what that child understands about the unfolding events. Because the novel does not use the first-person point of view, that is neither Brandon nor Reshmina tell their story directly, the novel creates genuine uncertainty at least in the first reading over whether either of these children, both placed in such extraordinarily dangerous environments, will even survive. That suspense allows the reader to experience more closely the feeling of helplessness and vulnerability that Brandon feels as he descends the chaotic stairwell and that Reshmina feels crouched in the underground caves with bombs going off directly overhead. More than creating immediacy to the storyline, the limited omniscient point of view allows the narrative to explore how the mind of...